Christmas In Puerto Vallarta

I have been seriously lazy about adding this blog, yes I know Christmas was a while ago but I have been busy, a little thing called the Olympics came through town.

Puerto Vallarta is a great place to spend the holidays. This is the first time I have been in a tropical place for the holidays and I highly recommend it. It was a little weird hearing Xmas carols while sweating on the beach, especially white Christmas.

This trip I opted to stay at a new hostel that just opened up. It is part of the Vallata Sun Hotel. The location is great, it is in old town, a block from the beach just up from Olas Altas. The hostel is run by a couple of Mexican nationals who are both backpackers themselves. In their off season they hit the road on their own adventures, they have been to 40+ countries and are a wealth of information. Due to this they know what it is backpackers want and need in a hostel. They are great people, due to the holidays and most people being away from home on Christmas eve they cooked a whole Turkey diner with all the trimmings for the hostel guests (at no extra charge to them). They also put candy canes and Santa candies on all of our bunks. A very unexpected and thoughtful touch and one that everyone there appreciated. Cost of a bunk is $17.00 a night and includes a breakfast of toast/bread, cereal and fruit. An excellent value.

Christmas in Mexico is celebrated on Xmas eve, that is when the big masses are and when the families get together. My mom and her husband live 6 months out of the year in PV so for Xmas eve we went to a restaurant called Que Pasa. As part of the payment for diner, people had to bring a toy for the local kids. One of the owners dressed up as Santa and there was an elf. Pinada's are big in Mexican celebrations so they had 3 of them for the kids, a reindeer, a santa and a Christmas tree. We all had a great time celebrating with the local kids and their parents and it was great to see them whacking away at the pinata.

On Christmas eve a lot of the streets in the local hood are closed to cars and families pull out BBQ's and there is dancing and partying. All in all a good time was had by all. Because PV is a tourist town most shops, restaurants and bars are open during both Xmas eve and Xmas day.

I am currently on another adventure. I started in Costa Rica and in 3 months I fly home out of Lima Peru via New York. If you want to come along the link to the new blog is http://backpackingcentralandsouthamerica.blogspot.com

Backpacking Central America - Summary

I've been home for 3 months now and still my backpack is not unpacked. There it sits by the front door fully packed "just in case". In case of what I am not sure, I'm pretty sure that if I unpack it I'll have to face the reality of the adventure being over. If it's still there in a few months I will seek professional help.

Not that reality is that bad, I had work lined up for when I got back so no financial crunch. My piece of crap 86 Bronco that I had left parked, outside in the snow when I left 4 months beforehand started 1st try after a battery re-change. I got home just in time for May long weekend. The 1st long weekend after winter when every resident of Vancouver gets in their car and parks on highway #1 to get out of town. I headed to Cultus Lake with some friends a short 1 1/2 hour drive from Vancouver. I have also made it over to Victoria this summer and in a few weeks over to Tofino for some surfing. I saw some beautiful places on my travels but there really is no place like home, British Columbia is one of the most beautiful places I've seen so this summer I am going to play tourist in my own province.

I am defiantly hooked on traveling and fully intend to keep exploring. It's a big world out there and I want to see as much of it as I can while I'm here. This trip was my first "big" trip and I did it solo in countries that I didn't speak the language of. In the beginning it kind of scared the crap out of me. During the 1st couple of weeks I constantly asked myself what the hell was I doing and why did I think I could possibly do it? The turning point was in Mexico City, I wanted to go to a museum on the other side of town. I didn't want to take an organized tour, I wanted to take the sub-way and mix with the locals. I've never been in a city with that many people before or on a sub-way the size of the one they have. I knew odds were slim that there would be many English speakers around and I was right, I didn't meet one on the trip there or back. Once I mastered the sub-way I knew that no matter where I went I'd be okay on my own.

I left Vancouver in January and returned home in May. The 4 month trip through 7 countries cost me about $3000.00 Canadian ($2700 US). I didn't do any of the "big ticket" items as I have done most of them, I do highly recommend you give them a go if you have never tried them. White Water Rafting, Zip Line Trips, Bungee Jumping, Fishing Trips, Whale watching trips, day boat trips, horse back riding ( did do one of these this trip), will all run you about $30.00 to $60.00 US. There are some really great multi day/camp out hikes that will run you about $150-$300 US.

Things I learned On My Trip

- Latin people are incredible - Some of the locals I met on the trip live on next to nothing and are in living conditions that North Americans would consider sub-standard. Yet they are friendly, warm, helpful and most of all happy. It makes one take a look at what is and is not important in life. Seeing a farm family come into town on Sunday for church dressed in their best cloths and in their donkey pulled cart brings home how trivial it is to care about what you have and the brand names on your stuff. I much prefer the Latin outlook on life, they value what they have and although they may want to better their situation it is rarely based on the "keep up with the Jones's" attitude of North Americans.

- Never trust cab drivers - Although I always got to where I was going and in no way felt threatened my wallet took a few hits. Some tips: Always agree on a price before you get in. If you can keep your backpack in the back seat, just in case your driver wants to renegotiate once you reach your destination. They can't hold your stuff hostage you can pay them the agreed price and walk away. If you can share cabs; usually at bus stops & hostels there are people going the same way, ask around. Most people are happy to cut their costs down by sharing.

- Beware mystery chicken bus snacks - During those long 6-12 hour long bus rides food vendors will board the bus, they stay on for a stop, get off, cross the road and catch one going the other way... Repeat for 8 -12 hours per day. There is everything from drinks to chicken and candy. Some food is not identifiable. Sometimes it may seem like a good idea to take a walk on the unknown side but it rarely is. I should add that these buses do not stop for more than 5 minutes at a time, there are no bathroom stops. You can train your bladder to hold out and avoid liquids but mystery bus food could cause more than a little discomfort.

- Get the top bunk in hostels - It's a matter of preference some people don't like the top bunk but I prefer it. - Closer to the fans; in 90 degree heat the closer to the fan the better. Head is not by the lockers; most lockers in hostels are next to the bed and a lot of them are metal. You won't get thrown up on; sadly in the hostel in Panama in the dorm room next to mine someone partied a little too hard. They were sleeping on the top bunk and tossed their cookies over the side, total party foul. I met the guy that was in the bottom bunk at the time and he got hit, apparently not a way you want to wake up. The down side; some of those bunks are really high 7 + feet and there are no ladders. If you are drinking and find you don't feel well getting down can be a challenge.

- Bargaining is a national sport but there is a line - Mexico was the most expensive country I was in Panama would come in 2nd, the rest are very cheap but in all most of the vendors are people who are just scraping by. I think because the money is so different you sometimes loose track on exactly how much something is. I found myself in Guatemala negotiating for a hotel room, it was a private room with my own bathroom and they wanted $35 Quetzal's, I offered $20.00 and then I did the math and realized I was haggling over approximately $1.75 US. The hotel is local family owned; they live on-site in rooms that are not as nice as the ones they rent out. The grandfather lived in a room with no bathroom. That $1.75 a night was not going to break my budget but it could make a huge difference in their world so I offered them $30 which they accepted. I met some backpackers on the road who would spend an hour arguing to get a better rate and some of them do. Personally I prefer to pay a fair market price if my budget ever got low enough that such a small amount of money would make that much of an impact it's time to go home.

- Patience - Nothing in Latin America happens quickly; if you go to a sit down restaurant it is expected that it will be a 2 - 3 hour event. They will never bring you the bill/check unless you ask them for it. It's part of their culture; they consider it rude to ask if you want your bill or to just bring it. You can't just say hello to someone; there is a ritual involved that involves 10-15 minutes of small talk. It is considered rude to not chat which leads to everyone being late for pretty much every thing. Line ups are standard everywhere; they never move quickly. Banks are especially horrible it's not uncommon to have to spend an hour in a line up. On the upside most of them are air conditioned so you may find yourself bypassing the ATM in favor of the teller just for some relief from the heat.

- Don't give money to the street kids - As cute and as sad as they are they do not get to keep the money. Either their parents get it in which case it is bad because if the kid can earn money they won't enroll them in school. Or they are working for someone and they take the money making it bad because it encourages child slavery. It's hard to do, my friends and I got swarmed in Leon outside a bar at 2am by 6 little boys aged 8 to 10. As bad as you feel for them and as crappy as it makes you feel you aren't doing them any favors by giving them money. I have bought them food and drinks, that they get to keep.

- A positive attitude and a smile will go a long way - There will be things that will aggravate you. Seeing the humor in a situation will make things easier. Getting frustrated and voicing it will not. People are more inclined to help you out if you don't abuse them, in most cases they have no control over whatever issue you are having. A smile is contagious if you do it you will find others around you doing it.

- Hablo español- My Spanish is pretty basic, so it is embarrassing to speak it; I keep thinking I'm butchering their language. I can form Tarzan like sentences but it isn't pretty. Despite that it is preferable to give it a try, the locals appreciate it and although they may laugh and correct you when you mess up the fact that you are trying will score you points. The locals talk fast so it never sounds the same when they say it as it did in class, its okay to ask them to speak slower. There are 2 forms of you in Spanish, tu is for friends and people you know well and usted which is more formal. Always opt for the formal, the Latin culture is very etiquette sensitive and you could offend someone by using the casual version.

I am definitely going to continue to travel, during this trip I met a lot of people who were doing volunteer work as they traveled. I would have liked to have done more on this trip but I would want to spend a couple of months doing it so it would be more of a 6 month trip for me. Lots of people were working at hostels to help defer the costs of their trips, a free place to stay and free or discounted meals and drinks for a few weeks can help extend your travels considerably.

Palenque / El Panchan Mexico

Caught the 11pm bus out of Veracruz to Villahermosa at a cost of $418 pesos and a 6 hour ride. I provided some entertainment for the folks at the ADO ticket counter. When I went up to get my ticket I couldn't hear what she was saying, she is behind glass with the speaker. There were sirens going by and the speaker was not the greatest; and as it turns out I have no idea how to say Villahermosa, you would think it would be easy but not so.... I finally just wrote it down and passed a note to her which resulted in much laughter from her and me. Having done this a few time now I know she is going to ask for my name which will result in much confusion so I write it down and pass another note through before she asks, resulting in more laughter. Now there are 4 clerks standing around smiling at me and waiting to see what happens.. Next up seat selection, luckily I know a few numbers so that went okay. Long story short by the end of the purchase I had 4 clerks laughing their asses off and a long line up of people waiting to buy tickets who were not laughing so much. When I went to go catch my bus outside all of the clerks came out to say goodbye. So glad I could entertain the locals LOL

Got to Villahermosa at about 5:30 just in time for the 5:45 bus to Palenque at a cost of $106 pesos and about a 2 hour ride. Met up with a couple of people on that bus, a couple who were in the same hotel as me in Veracruz and a guy with a Canadian flag on his backpack who it turns out was in disguise and was really from California. Seemed like a nice enough guy but really you shouldn't be able to buy Canadian flags unless you can show proof of citizenship, as much as I sympathize with the plight of the travelers from the south don't be screwing it up for us. Anyway it ended up we were all going to El Panchan (Mayan for "heaven on earth") which is just outside of Palenque on the way to the ruins so we shared a cab $50.00 pesos for all of us and our packs. El Panchan is basically a plot of land that one of the archaeologists who worked on the site bought. Now he has divided it amongst his children who run a bunch of different businesses including places that rent out cabanas and other accommodations and a couple of restaurants. There is an Internet place but in 2 days it has never opened so I have had to go into town to check the Lost Trekkers site and approve ads. Not a big deal the vans (Collectivo's) go back and forth between town and the ruins very regularly usually it is only a 5 minute wait to flag one down. The trip into town is 10 pesos and another 10 pesos to get back. The town is nice enough but very hot, there is not much to do there a few pubs and some shopping. El Panchan is a lot cooler than town due to the heavy jungle foliage there are spots of sun but most of the paths have tree coverage so it's a lot more bearable.

I found a cabana down by the river at the Jungle Place. Very basic a bed a table and a fan, it does have electricity and a small porch on the back over the river (stream), there are shared bathrooms the cost is $100 pesos a night.

After dumping my stuff in my new home and on very little sleep I hoped a collectivo to the ruins. The park gate is just outside the driveway into El Panchan so I walked through, there is a $20 pesos charge to enter the park, then I flagged down a collectivo for $10 pesos.

The fee to get into the Palenque ruins is $51 pesos which includes entry into the museum as well. If you go give yourself at least 6 hours to get through the whole park, it is huge and there are many stairs involved if you want to go into the buildings, make sure you have lots of water as well. They charge $10 pesos if you need to buy it while you are there and you have to go outside the ruins to get it. Not a big deal, your ticket is good for the day so you can go in and out as much as you want. There are also food stands which are pretty cheap and some expensive restaurants. There are a ton of people selling souvenirs as well as guides offering their services. I didn't opt for a guide all of the signs for the buildings have English translations but you would probably get more of the history and more of a jungle walk with a guide, they were promising to show me howler monkeys.

The ruins are incredible most of them are dated from 600 BC to 800 BC, Palenque itself started as an agricultural village in the 4th century. The ruins are in pretty good shape considering they were buried under jungle for a very long time. It does get really hot in the main area as there is little shade so I broke it up and did some ruins that were in the jungle then a building in the main part then back to the jungle. The ruins cover a very large area so wear comfy shoes. There were a lot of people there when I went but it was still possible to be the only one on some of the trails in the jungle and be the only one in and around some of the ruins in the jungle area. I did have some issues with the whole height thing, I am not a fan of high places so going up the big buildings was okay but down was another matter. It's kind of scary when you are looking down, those stairs look very little and there is the added challenge of getting down while lots of people are coming up. Luckily my fear of looking like a sissy girl is stronger than my fear of heights, by the 2nd building it wasn't so bad but I was very careful and developed a side step maneuver to get down rather than the head on route.

El Panchan is a great mix of people from all over the place, at anytime you can hear 3 or 4 different languages being spoken and the atmosphere is very relaxed. The restaurants at night have candlelight dining and the one I have been going to Don Muchos has live music that starts at about 8ish. They also have good food and the prices are great, there is very little on the menu over $100 pesos for the amount that I eat they have a whole range of choices in the $30 - $50 peso range, beers are about $17 pesos depending on what you drink. Having been into town a few times, I am very happy with the decision to stay outside of town the whole jungle thing is much better for me than the town thing.

Met some great folks here, Kiwi guy, Holland girl, Montreal chick, Italian dude, Hungarian guy, some Brits and more. El Panchan attracts a wide variety of folks from all over the world.

Next stop Flores Guatemala, got here after an 8 hour van, boat and bus extravaganza.. Details to come but I'm taking the day off tomorrow to do some swimming and lazing, next day Tikal ruins.

My cabana in the jungle and trail leading to it

Shots Of The Ruins

Veracruz Mexio

Left Mexico City for Veracruz, took the Ado GL bus it is the deluxe one for $400 pesos (only $40 pesos more than the regular bus) the ride took about 5 1/2 hours. No food which kind of sucked, ETN and Primera gave me some kind of sandwich and cookies/nuts.

Had a bit of an issue with a cab driver in Veracruz, told him I wanted to go to the Hotel Amparo which I had found on the Internet before I left Mexico City. He tried taking me to another hotel, one that he no doubt gets kick backs from far away from the central zone and $200 pesos a night more. A battle of wills began, I wasn't getting out or paying him and he didn't want to take me to where I wanted to go... I won he finally gave up after 10 minutes of us sitting in front of the hotel.

The hotel Amparo was listed in my footprint guide as a good place to stay. They were right, a single room with no TV cost me $150 pesos a night (if you want the TV $180 pesos). It is right in the historic zone a few blocks from the zocalo and the malecon. You can pretty much walk to anywhere you want to go. There are a ton of similar hotels in the area so if they are full there are other choices. The bathroom is hillarious, the bathroom is the shower. Brings back the days of the family trailer.

I have spent most of the time walking around checking out the sites. There is free live music all over the place in this town, you can't go down a street without running into a band. There are free shows pretty much every night in the zocalo as well. Last night there was a band in every square, a bit of sensory overload when you got to the place where they merged into one. I like Latin music but 2 different bands at once is a little too much of a good thing.

You may have noticed that while in Mexico City I didn't mention any clubs, that is because I was being good and stayed out of them. Well that lasted until last night when I found a metal bar down the street with live music and all you can drink beer for $60 pesos (yup that's just under $6.00 mi amigos) and it is 1/2 a block from the hotel..

Veracruz is a beautiful place, I took a boat ride around the harbour today at a cost of $75 pesos for a 45 minute tour. Things here are much cheaper than the other places I have been. The road side stand food is $8 pesos a taco the beer is cheap and the tours are cheap. This is a big tourist destination but mostly for Mexicans so the pricing reflects it. They have several beaches in town (a bus ride away from where I am) but due to the heavy shipping traffic in the harbour they are kinda polluted. If you take a 6km bus ride down the road there is a beach called Boca Del Rio. I however did not make it there, it is very hot here and baking on a beach was not something I wanted to do when it was that far from where I am staying. I only like to stay out for an hour or so now and then I've had enough. In the next couple of weeks they are having their carnival, too bad I won't be here apparently it is a great week long party. My Spanish is improving a bit the front desk folks at the hotel think it's funny that I can actually ask for my room key without having to use my pocket English to Spanish book, which has come in very handy here.

I have found a great coffee place called El Grand Café de la Parroquia they are famous in Mexico for their coffee they have one called Lechero. You get a shot of coffee in a glass delivered to the table and then another guy comes by with a metal tea kettle filled with hot milk and dumps it in. It is very tasty. A great place to people watch as it is across from the Malecon, they have patio seating and they have live music courtesy of the band that sets up on the corner of the street. They have been in business since 1808.

Next stop heading out on the night bus tonight to Palenque but I will be staying just outside the ruins in El Panchan. Seems you can get a cabana in the jungle for $80.00 to $100.00 pesos a night, no electricity but there is an Internet cafe in the main compound. Bus from Veracruz to Villahermosa $400.00 pesos and just over 6 hours. Bus from Villahermosa to Palenque $106 pesos and about 2 hours. Should be there by 9am ish.

Cruise Ship That Came In - The World - Privately Owned Residences On The Sea. Cool Way To Live incase you want to run away from home and sign up here is a link to The World Web Site

Hotel Room

Street Bands - These Folks can dance..